SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA / A news summary

Airport Neighbors Demand Relief From Jet Noise

LOS ANGELES AIRPORT — More than a hundred people who live beneath flight patterns at Los Angeles International Airport demanded Monday that airport officials do something to reduce jet noise.

They left the heated, raucous meeting at the Proud Bird Restaurant near the airport with a promise from airport officials to host a series of community forums beginning in September to discuss the problem.

Airport officials had proposed in December that such meetings be held, but none have been convened to date.

Residents charged that a task force set up to find ways to ease the problem has ignored their complaints. The task force, made up of residents and local elected officials, has done little to reduce aircraft noise, residents said.

At Monday's meeting, the task force's final session, Lillie Lee of Manhattan Beach said jet noise inside her home is often deafening.

"We had to throw ourselves on the floor and hide under the bed with my daughter because the house was shaking so much," Lee said of one low-flying flight.

Noting that the airport had 1,400 takeoffs and landings a day 10 years ago, compared to 2,200 a day now, El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon said: "The bottom line is that this airport is too big."

Inglewood residents said 1,000 flights come in or go out over the community every day. That volume, one resident complained, makes "Inglewood and South-Central Los Angeles a catastrophe waiting to happen."